Copyright in Klingon; Washington Post, 1/9/17

David Post, Washington Post; Copyright in Klingon:

"The court went awry, I believe, in holding additionally that the defendants “are not entitled to the fair use defense,” a holding that illustrates much that is wrong with copyright law these days.

To begin with, the fair use defense, involving a complicated balancing of defendant’s motives and purposes, the effect of the defendant’s use on the market for the original work and any number of other relevant factors, is hardly ever appropriate for disposition on summary judgment; there’s too much fact-finding required.

But more to the point, “Axanar” uses copyrighted material for a transformative purpose — creating a new and original work of art. It is not a substitute, in the market, for the original; if anything, it enhances the value of the original. This is precisely what our copyright law, through the fair use exception, should be encouraging — the production of new and original works of art that build on prior works to create something new and valuable."

Axanar isn’t fair use, judge finds, setting stage for Star Trek copyright trial; Ars Technica, 1/5/17

Cyrus Farivar, Ars Technica; 

Axanar isn’t fair use, judge finds, setting stage for Star Trek copyright trial

"In additional court filings submitted on Wednesday, CBS, Paramount, and Axanar Productions all put forward their list of witnesses. CBS said it would put John Van Citters, an executive who has worked with Paramount and CBS on Star Trek for nearly 20 years, on the stand.

Van Citters, according to the plaintiffs’ attorneys, "knows the canon of Star Trek intimately as well as the history and personnel involved in the production of Star Trek in order to be able to efficiently assess whether or not material CBS is presenting to the public is accurate and fits with existing canon."

Axanar Productions, for its part, will counter with Christian Tregillis, a financial consultant who will "rebut Plaintiffs’ theory of lost profits that they claim resulted from Defendants’ alleged infringement, i.e., that funds donated to making of Defendants’ works have resulted in lost revenue or profits to Plaintiffs," according to its own filing.

The film company will also offer up Henry Jenkins, a professor of media studies at the University of Southern California, who is an expert on Star Trek’s historical relationship between its creators and its fans."